With only four races remaining in the inaugural CARS Tour Late Model Stock season, just a single point separates Brayton Haws and Myatt Snider for the championship lead, with neither contender showing any signs of caving to the pressure.

The two championship finalists have taken two different paths to the top of the standings with Haws winning three times and leading the most laps, and Snider posting top-10s in each event to claim the best average finish on the tour.

It’s a cliché in motorsports at this point but most drivers prefer to not think about championships until the very end of a season — not wanting to place undue tension on their efforts. But both Haws and Snider are enjoying the position they find themselves in and are just grateful for the opportunity to be crowned the first ever CARS Late Model Stock champion.

It’s a goal that Haws says he and his team keep in mind each time they unload at the track.

“We think about it a lot actually,” Haws told Race22 on Friday night. “It would mean a lot for us to be able to win the first CARS Tour championship. We’ve been pretty good this year and our bad finishes have come on things that were out of our control, like the mechanical issues at Southern National and Motor Mile.”

Snider has also bunked the trend by admitting that he’s kept the championship in mind each event this season.
“You always want to be the first person to achieve something,” Snider said. “We haven’t won yet and that will go a long way towards us winning this championship. But the bigger picture stuff is a good reminder to just take what the car gives us and for me to limit mistakes.”

Haws has experience winning inaugural championships, having earned top honors in the 2009 Maxxis National Junior karting series. The 15-year-old remembers how that felt that year and wants to do the same thing with the CARS Tour come October.

“But really, any championship is an accomplishment,” Haws said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s the first or the 10th. You want to be the best and when you factor in the competition we have in this series, it’s been a thrill to have this much speed.”

Based on pure speed, it appears that Haws has the advantage but Snider says he and his team has been working hard to close the gap and they believe they are close to winning their first race when it matters the most.
“We know we can win but it just hasn’t come together yet,” Snider said. “I’ve gone into these races just trying to get the best finish that we can get. We haven’t been points racing from the start but getting the best finish you can is what leads to wins and eventually leads to championships.

“I just feel like we have to keep doing what we’re doing. If we avoid problems and get the most out of the car, we’re going to win some races this year.”

The CARS Tour Late Model Stock championship will spill into Orange County Speedway in Roguemont, North Carolina on Saturday night for the Summertime Showdown 250. Both the Late Model Stock and Super Late Model divisions will battle for 125 laps in a doubleheader.

The event will be broadcast on a PPV basis by RacefeedX with the standard definition broadcast available for $18.